Mechanisms for regulation of brain mitochondria by extramitochondrial Ca2+ as new targets of neurodegeneration

Due to complex interactions between mitochondria and other cell compartments there are diverse possibilities for involvement of mitochondria in the pathophysiology of neurodegeneration (1). Recently we detected for the first time at isolated muscle mitochondria of R6/2 mice an increased sensitivity of OXPHOS against Ca2+-stress (2). Therefore we systematically investigated the role of cytosolic Ca2+ (Ca2+ cyt) for the regulation of OXPHOS at isolated brain mitochondia of normal and transgenic animals as models of the neurodegenerative diseases Huntington, Parkinson and Alzheimer. In contrast to the textbooks we…